The present invention relates to a plate carrier, and more particularly to a plate carrier for use by servers in a restaurant.
Servers at restaurants often prefer to carry a number of plates in each trip between a kitchen and diner's table to minimize the number of trips necessary to provide meals and to clear the tables. Generally, plates are carried on a large tray. Unfortunately, if the server is bumped or stumbles, the plates may fall off the tray, and possibly onto diners.
U.S. Pat. No. 953,007 for “Serving Rack,” describes a rack for use by waiters in hotels, restaurants, etc. The rack includes a handle and a vertical member extending down from the handle. A multiplicity of substantially round wire loops reside on opposite sides of the vertical member and are adapted for supporting plates and cups of various sizes. A supporting member resides at the bottom of the vertical member, thus allowing the rack to be placed horizontal surfaces when not being carried by a waiter. Unfortunately, the carrier of the '007 patent requires an awkward hand and arm position, resulting in rapid fatigue of the server. Other plate carriers are known, but they similarly require carrying by the hand, and are also awkward and fatiguing.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/301,539 filed Dec. 13, 2005 by the present inventor discloses a plate carrier for carrying on a waiter's forearm. The plate carrier of the '539 application allows a waiter to easily carry more plates than known plate carriers. However, a three prong plate holder disclosed by the '539 application may not securely hold a potentially wide variety of plates.